Reading archive 2026-05-04

The quest to save Outer Banks homes

Poisonous black rain falls in Russia as Ukraine strikes oil facilities: Residents of Tuapse, on the Black Sea, complained of an inadequate government response and coverup of what they say is a huge environmental and health disaster.

Iran fires on U.S. ships in Strait of Hormuz, in threat to ceasefire: The attacks followed the passage of U.S. warships and merchant vessels through the waterway despite Iran’s threats against attempts to “interfere” in the strait.

The fall of an African nation shows what Putin’s promises are worth: Jihadists are kicking Russia out of Mali. The U.S. should move in.

Bethesda bakery owner loses nearly $25,000 in phone spoofing scam, warns other small businesses: Susan Limb says she had no idea a phone number could be spoofed to look exactly like her bank's phone number.

A GOP lawmaker supported an immigration crackdown. Her husband paid a price.: The situation cost Idaho state Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld and her husband most of their income and highlights an escalating split in the party.

The secret to making chores so fun that you look forward to them: Strategies such as a points system, timed challenges and even “the poop rule” can lend some excitement to mundane tasks such as decluttering or mopping the floor.

An island depends on him to run the ferry. Who will do it after Terry?: Terry Laird, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, has spent his adult life keeping the people who live on a tiny Chesapeake Bay island connected.

About pain and other ailments: "What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" - Othello (William Shakespeare)

Reading archive 2025-06-09

What the GOP is planning now is even worse than all those debt ceiling fights: The GOP budget bill simultaneously requires more borrowing — and also prohibits that borrowing.

Retired man takes on nemesis, cleans up 15,000 discarded tires: “They tick me off more than anything,” Jon Merryman said about illegally dumped tires. He has a goal of cleaning up trash in every county in America.

Democratic Party chair lashes officer in leaked call, prompting more infighting: The finger-pointing among the DNC’s top officers comes as the party faces deeper political challenges.

Mike Flanagan, Stephen King screen whisperer, will sleep when he’s dead: The ever-busy director and Stephen King whisperer returns to theaters after five years — and four TV shows — with “The Life of Chuck.”

NASA, Pentagon push for SpaceX alternatives amid Trump’s feud with Musk: The fight between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk highlights the government’s outsize dependence on a single company for missions.

White House security staff warned Musk’s Starlink is a security risk: Starlink satellite connections in the White House bypass controls meant to stop leaks and hacking.

A troubling chapter in William F. Buckley’s life: How was this hometown pro-segregation paper forgotten? - "What was surprising was that Buckley, who famously crowed that he had rid the Republican Party of antisemites, bigots and kooks, would go to the trouble of creating a newspaper that would saturate its pages with pro-segregation stories. For someone so educated, so Catholic, so intensely logical and delightfully witty, it was a little like finding out that, well, he was a racist."

2 juveniles stabbed at Dupont park and 1 man shot nearby during Pride: The violence came after the park was reopened at the request of the D.C. government.

Colleagues ask if Norton is still the best ‘warrior’ to fight for D.C.: “Even the best pitcher on the team loses their fastball eventually,” one Democrat said of civil rights icon Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s delegate in the House.

Army video of parade prep appeared to show ‘Hang Fauci’ graffiti: The footage, up for more than a day on the Army’s official X account, showed tanks being loaded onto a flatcar.

A powerful, opaque al-Qaeda affiliate is rampaging across West Africa: With up to 6,000 fighters, JNIM is now the most well-armed militant force in the Sahel — and among the most powerful in the world, officials and experts say.

Toxic truth? The cookware craze redefining ‘ceramic’ and ‘nontoxic’

A knockout blow for LLMs? LLM “reasoning” is so cooked they turned my name into a verb - "If you can’t use a billion dollar AI system to solve a problem that Herb Simon one of the actual 'godfathers of AI', current hype aside) solved with AI in 1957, and that first semester AI students solve routinely, the chances that models like Claude or o3 are going to reach AGI seem truly remote."